


Bitter Beginnings

by Savy_tries_to_be_a_writer



Series: Avengers AU [1]
Category: MCU, MCU without infinity war and endgame, Marvel
Genre: AU, Avengers - Freeform, Avengers AU, MCU AU, MCU AU without IW and Endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:42:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23751025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Savy_tries_to_be_a_writer/pseuds/Savy_tries_to_be_a_writer
Summary: In an alternate universe, we find ourselves Post Civil War but the conflicts of it are somewhat resolved. Bucky Barnes' recovery in Wakanda was successfull, and he's returned to the US to join the reunited team of Avengers and a new wave of S.H.I.E.L.D. in missions to protect the world from (super)natural threats.In this first instalment of the AU, a new character, a field Agent from the new S.H.I.E.L.D. is introduced, and the golden trio of Captain America, Barnes and Sam Wilson make her acquaintance.
Series: Avengers AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1710946
Comments: 1





	Bitter Beginnings

The first time he had made her get that look on her face, it was by accident. She was struggling with the door to their debrief room.

It wasn’t that she was _actually_ too stupid or weak to get it to open, but Stark had considered it a fantastic bit of fun to have Jarvis’ successor F.R.I.D.A.Y. hack into the ‘simple’ security system for locking and unlocking conference room doors in S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. The security system had not accepted her S.H.I.E.L.D. ID card, nor Coulson’s, and as neither of them were in a mood to deal with tech support, she had resulted in trying to pry it open, unhinging the door (if only they hadn’t invested in sliding doors), basically _anything_ which would need a bit of physical exertion.

To be fair to her, she’d had a hell of a day already, and it wasn’t even 10.30.  
On her way to HQ, on the streets, she’d seen a mugging take place and had not been able to stop the perpetrator. She had spilled her morning Earl Grey all over her freshly dry-cleaned blouse -which she’d bought with her first pay check- and then she got saddled with briefing part of what used to be the Avengers on the commotion in Washington when she’d rather have just gone down there herself to get a good look at things and smooth things over.

Plus, _Sam Wilson_. Who had mistaken her for the coffee-maid or something like that, despite the fact that she wore her badge and “gun” - it wasn’t a real gun, she had opted for a Taser-gun while not on missions, instead. And he’d called her _sweetheart_ while asking for a tall Americano.

So when she’d given up on using brute force (kicking the bullet-proof glass in wouldn’t have worked, though she was longing to try) and simply pulled the plastic of the card reader from the wall, trying to manipulate the cables into opening the doors, Bucky Barnes came into eyesight asking if she wouldn’t be better off to ‘just ask one of the agents on the floor for their key card’.

The description of a volcano erupting in her grey eyes wasn’t far off. Neither was the idea that upon that sight, even her father would have retreated as far away from her as he could.

And Barnes did.

Though not yet acquainted, he could faintly tell he’d already screwed up with whoever this person was. As the redhead pulled a fistful of tiny wires from the hole in the wall and grabbed the pocketknife Coulson silently held out to her to cut through them, all the while not breaking eye contact with the White Wolf for one second, he leaned over to mumble into Steve’s ear.

“Who did I just piss off?”

Tiny sparks flew from the wires and a second later the heavy door slid open. With more noise than usual and not as smooth as it usually did. Steve uncrossed his arms from in front of his chest and made forward, following Coulson and the woman.

“I don’t know, but I hope she doesn’t get near the wirings of your arm any time soon. For _your_ sake.”

Bucky scoffed.

"It's always the _redheads_ with you, isn't it?" The Captain mumbled towards his friend as he turned to him in the door frame. 

"At least I don't pick my friends by my type, _stupid_ ", Barnes grumbled back.

The door to the conference room stayed open. Coulson motioned the three men – Sam had found his way back to the group and had entered behind Bucky – to take a seat.

“So where _is_ Stark?” the female agent asked as she pulled back a chair next to Coulson. A tiny, slender USB-stick looking thing dropped from her hand to the table with a heavier _thunk_ than necessary. Or than would be expected.

Cap cleared his throat.

“He’s not with us. He benevolently allowed us to use his helicopter to get here, but he wasn’t invited so he didn’t tag along. It seems he sent F.R.I.D.A.Y. along on a mission of its own though.” His eyes darted to the wires hanging out by the side of the door and he could only _just_ hide the smile creeping up his face.

The agent averted her eyes with a little head-tilt. She clenched her jaw and leaned back in her seat. As Coulson went on to start the briefing, her eyes carefully inspected each of the three men sat in front of her.

Steve Rogers with the blond hair, stoic face and serious eyes seemed to be in full attention of Coulson’s words. She’d heard he had deserted the Avengers to save his best friend from certain execution by the US government, resulting in an epic PR disaster in Berlin. Things were decently patched up nowadays, but the Avengers were not yet ready to act together as a complete team. Or so was the general point of discussion between Fury and Coulson that seeped through to the rest of the agency.

“This is Agent Jackson. She’s going to be your contact liaison for this mission. She’s going to fly down to D.C. with you, manage communications with the FBI, and see what our best angle in this case is.” Three pairs of eyes swept over the woman quickly. Cool, grey eyes stared back at each and every one of them. They rested on Sam.

Sam Wilson had already made an impression on Agent Jackson that was hard to forget about for the moment. The sharp chin was well contoured by his dark beard, and his chocolate coloured eyes bore into her. They were intelligent and calm, so the woman didn’t realise he was actually rather embarrassed by their earlier encounter. Only when he averted his eyes and turned to look at the floor with a crease between his eyebrows did she suspect he might not be as cold as he first appeared to be. What she _knew_ was that he hadn’t listened to any of Coulson’s words since he had introduced her, and she would have fun messing with him about what he had missed when the time came.

“We’ve got contacts with the FBI, and the agent overseeing this case will know she outranks them, but as we’ve said before – S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t any less of a secret the second time around. _No one-_ ” he drawled the words out as if that was still necessary- “can know that _you_ ’re there. And even less can they know about your affiliation with _us_.”

Coulson’s matter of fact voice accompanied the gentle, small smile on his face perfectly. It left no room for questions, even though his words were far from clear.

Agent Jackson finally turned to look at Bucky Barnes.

 _James_ ‘Bucky’ _Barnes_. The one formerly known as the Winter Soldier. Now more commonly known by his new moniker the White Wolf. Last seen officially at the Berlin Airport, when the Avengers fought against… each other, essentially. Still not off the official most-wanted list on the wall of FBI headquarters in D.C. . His shoulder-length black hair was smooth and straight as an arrow. It created a sort of curtain between his eyes and both sides of the room. The wide jaw was covered in a little more than a 3 o’clock stubble of the same colour as his bushy brows. They were furrowed together in concentration.

Agent Jackson tilted her head to the side, studying Barnes’ face. His jaw was still relaxed, but his whole face seemed locked; teeth were obviously pressed on top of each other, eyebrows drawn towards his nose as if to make one big T-shaped line. His eyes were fixed on Coulson, and during the entire time they had been in the room he had blinked only twice, or so she thought to have observed.

She bit on the inner corner of her mouth. That comment he had made about her supposed inferiority was hard to push aside, but she worked in a male-dominated field of work. And she’d lived her whole 26 years of life as a woman. It wasn’t really that much of an issue to her anymore. Still, there was something about him that Agent Jackson could not place her finger on.  
She was aware of his recent return from Wakanda, where he had gotten some form of intensive therapy to get Hydra’s brainwashing out of his head. But he had not come back a fully healed man that was for sure. Something about him still made the hair on her arms stand on end, and she could _not_ put her finger on why.

Did she not trust him having returned to _their_ side? Did she not trust his programming having been undone, and fear he could relapse into Hydra soldier-mode at any given moment?  
 _No_.  
But there was something he _was_ keeping hidden, and she was hell-bent on getting to know what that was.

Coulson’s monotone voice was going on all the while Agent Jackson was inspecting the men sat in front of her, explaining to them how important it was to keep Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes’ identities hidden, as they were still wanted criminals whose faces had been all over the news a couple of years ago, as far as the public was concerned. As she finished giving Barnes the once-over, Coulson turned to her and passed the torch on to her.

‘-regarding the plan we’ve set up for this. Agent Jackson?”

He sat back down in one swift motion and directed all his attention to the woman next to him. For a moment, she was startled – had she ever seen Coulson sit down, much less to listen in on a debrief after his part was done? The agent cleared her throat and sat up straight again in her chair.

She could have stood up, but regarding the first impression two thirds of the team in front of her had made, she decided against it very consciously, and instead started pulling up pictures from the USB stick on the projector screen.

“ _This_ is our target, Walter Hessler,” the picture of a man in his late 40’s came up on the wall behind her; active build, a brown fluff of hair on his head.

“He’s a German buyer for Hydra’s laboratories just outside of Munich. For obvious reasons we can’t get to that right now, one of them being none of you are even allowed into the _country,_ and another one being that at least one of you,” her eyes darted to the former Winter Soldier, “probably doesn’t even have a valid passport.”

Sam turned to look at the rest of his team. Cap took offence.

“Don’t look at me, I’m ancient but mine’s in order. _Somehow_.”  
Barnes kept quiet.

“Be that as it may, we have intelligence that he’s buying a kilo of Vibranium in D.C. tomorrow evening.”

The tension in the room grew noticeably.

“Seeing as we’ve all probably come into contact with the effects of Vibranium in one way or another, and know what powers it holds, I don’t need to explain how that absolutely cannot happen.”

All three men shifted nervously. The muscle in Barnes’ cheek finally clenched. Light blue eyes now focused intensely on the female agent, nostrils flaring.

Rogers shifted the weight in his chair from one side to the other. His hands grasped the armrests tightly as if to steady himself. His gaze was fixed on a spot on the table, but a vein in his neck became distinctly visible. His throat moved as he swallowed whatever he was trying so hard to contain.

Wilson dropped his head into his hand and started rubbing his index finger over his eyebrows. He sighed loudly.

“Where do these people keep finding that stuff” he asked quietly into the room.

Agent Jackson cocked an eyebrow at him.

“That’s a good question and we’re intent on getting an answer to it.

Since King T’Challa declared that Klauwe had in fact _not_ stolen all the Vibranium left in the country of Wakanda, and there was a whole mountain full of it, demand has been high. Every illegal arms dealer wants a weapon enforced with Vibranium, every security firm is asking for vests and shields laced with the stuff, and every country with a military force demands they share their wealth.”

She lowered her head and exhaled forcibly.

“As if they’d do the same,” she whispered, sounding very annoyed.

“But for now, it’s not our priority to find out how the sellers got to it. We just need to make sure the deal doesn’t happen. Problem is, we only know where the deal is going to take place, and we don’t know who the seller is yet. It can’t be Klauwe, because he was killed by one of our government’s own, codename Killmonger.”

She cast a glance at Barnes.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to tell the others what happened there better than we can. _Officially_.”

He nodded. His lips pursed together a little.

Rogers cleared his throat.

“So, what _do_ we actually know about this seller? Cause so far, I have no idea what the hell we’re up against. What we _can_ do.”

Agent Jackson shifted in her seat.

“We’ll do what we _can_ indeed, Captain. We may not have a lot of intel on the buyer, but we hope to know more by the time we land. We’ve got a full team of agents on online decryption right now to uncover more details about whoever it is. And the FBI should be able to tell us more once we land in D.C. They’ve _also_ had an entire team of a dozen agents working on finding this unknown seller for over two weeks now. They’re very close to giving us a name. You can’t easily travel with 2 pounds of Vibranium in your suitcase.”

Wilson raised a hand but didn’t wait to be called upon.

“So, where’s this deal happening then?”

The redhead turned her face towards him.

“A shady nightclub in the Mayfair district, called _the 13 Hundred_. Are you familiar with that one, Master Sergeant?”

He shook his head.

“Doesn’t ring a bell, no.”

Agent Jackson cleared her throat.

“It’s an underground nightclub used by foreign traders to deal heavy weapons. Police forces have busted the place four times already, but other than prostitution by foreign women, they can’t press anything on them. And the women all say they’re there voluntarily and not affiliated with the establishment, so the owners go free of all charges.”

Rogers tapped his fingers on the armrest of his chair nervously.

“Ok, when are we leaving?”

His tone was that of an impatient youth, and it rubbed the female agent the wrong way. She hadn’t even gotten around to explaining the mission plan yet, but she was already tired of the men’s company.

Agent Jackson forcibly took the USB stick out of the slot built into the table.

“Very well, I’ll tell you our strategy plan on the flight there. The plane leaves at the Avenger’s Base at 1600 hours, meaning roughly 6 hours from now. I suggest you pack your bags lightly. If things go as planned, we are looking at little sleep tonight.”

She slid her chair back, a little louder than necessary, and got up.

“Unless there’s anything else Agent Coulson? I’ve got to hand some files over to Whyatt, and Agent Ken is expecting me in the training facilities at 12:30.”

Coulson nodded, and the agent turned to face the three men across from her.

“Gentlemen” she simply said, though their childish and impatient behaviour just now had seemed far from.

“Thank you, Amber” Coulson said, his eyes fixed on a spot on the table at which he was sitting.

Agent Jackson stopped short on her way out.

 _Amber_.

She would have preferred it if the others didn’t know her first name. She’d wanted to keep it as professional as she could for as long as she could – they didn’t _need_ to know as much about her as she did about them. After this mission they might never interact again. But Coulson seemingly thought different.

Amber inhaled deeply, quietly, and continued out of the room. Wilson, Rogers and Barnes watched as she walked through the now permanently open door.

She went on with her duties as stated. The members of the Avengers turned back to Coulson. He was looking at them with a smile on his face. The questions on their faces seemed clear to him, and he congratulated himself on his choice of assigning Agent Jackson to this mission.

She was going to do perfectly on guiding their re-integration into the agency.

“Don’t let her behaviour this morning fool you, gentlemen”, he said through his smile.

“She can be quite nice, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> I encourage criticism! Let me know what you think!!


End file.
